Uberiti Remington New Army 44

[FishDFly]

I bought an Uberiti 44 New Army Remington some time ago. It has been tuned by an Uberti gunsmith and a trigger job done afterwards

I finally got around to shooting it this week.

Loads, 25 yards and 50 yards, 20 grains of 3F, 18 grains of Cream Of Wheat for filler, covered in grease and .454 weighted balls.

At 25 and 50 yards, the first three(3) at each range are 9s and 10s, nice tight group. After that at 25 yards the group opened up like a hose, stays inside the 6 ring though.

At 50 yards, the group opened up and dropped into the 6 and 7 ring directly below the center of the 10 ring. Group is nothing to brag about.

Group center (left to rigth) is not a problem at either range. Each shot on the target was numbered as it was shot in the sequence of shooting.

Initially, I thought the opening up of the group was caused by a shift of my hand on the grip, riding up or down.

I finally got around to documenting the targets today and the load information into my book. That is when I realized that the accuracy goes south after the 3rd shot, 9s and 10 for 3 shots.

Do you think the group is blowing open with fouling? That is my initial thought after sitting here and looking at the targets and staring at them on the floor.

Thougths and comments,

Thanks,

RDE

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Richard,

Sometimes I use more than one wonder-wad between the ball and powder. The wads have NL-1000 IN THEM, where as the cereal doesn't. Could be that you don't really need the cereal. It might be the cause of your problem, especially in the winter weather. Not enough lube to soften the fouling could cause the groups to open-up.

I use a 35 grain charge, a wonder-wad and a .454 ball in my Pietta stainless '58 buffalo model that has a 12" tube. It likes this load and has won novelty-type shoots for me!

That being said, how about adjusting your load to 25 grains and use a second wonder-wad between the powder and ball. This will help take-up the extra space from not using the filler, and will also provide additional lube to make the fouling softer. I've even experimented with adding more NL-1000 to each wonder-wad by hand application, from the tube. This works great in the Winter. I store them in a plastic 35mm film can, which is air-tight, so the lube doesn't smell-up the range box, or worse yet--dry out from the low relative humidity.

Hope this helps & good luck!

Dave

Or, you could do everything that you're doing now, AND put some bore butter on top of the seated balls. But this technique can get as messy as Crisco--which is why I use wads :hmm:

 

[B. Miller]

Richard,
What grease are you using? When you fire one shot does it blow out the grease from the tops of the other balls. If it does it is not going dowm the barrel to keep the fouling soft. Check the top of the cylinders after each shot when testing a lube. A nice revolver lube is that 300 Plus from Winchester Sutler. It stays where you put it. I also get good results from a mixture of about 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 olive oil and 1/3 crisco. I usually start with a littl more beeswax. You will need slightly adjust the mix depending on outside temperature. I started using this mixture for my mini balls and decided to try it in the revolver and had good results.
Bruce

 

[FishDFly]

Bruce,

The grease is Gulf wax (parrafin), vasoline and mineral oil. With the recent temps it does fine, when it's 100 or so, it tends to be too soft and starts to melt.

I shot yesterday and shot 20 grains of 3F and cut the COW (Cream Of Wheat)back to 17 grains. It was easier to seat the ball and not as much pressure on the ball to get it seated seated below the face of the cylinder. Before it was a challenge to get the ball below the face of the cylinder.

It shot better at 25 and 50 yards this time.

Offhand at 25 yards, it will stay in the 10 ring with an occasional 9 and at 50 yards it will stay in the 10 and 9 ring, again with a flyer into the 8 ring. I paid more attention to my hand position on the grip and I think this helped a lot.

The pistol now is showing a lot of potential.

Thanks for the help.

RDE

 

[shunka]

I have had excellent luck with 35 gr 3F, .454 ball, and crisco on top in my Pietta; no wads or filler.

Slug your barrel and slug your cylinders. Often the cylinder mouths need to be opened up a tad. If your bore is .452 but your cylinders are .447 to .450 you will end up with undersized balls. If so
I would suggest increasing your powder to at least 30 gr, also try 35 gr. since you may need more pressure to obdurate the ball to engage the rifling after some fouling shots.

Oh yes, it's just me but I would ditch your lube as it is all petroleum based. I have found that petro-based lubes foul terribly with BP. Any mix of lard (tallow, crisco), beeswax, and olive oil (added to taste for softening) have worked well for me and others.

good luck
shunka

 

[B. Miller]

Thats some good shooting. Off hand I'm usually happy with the 8 ring in at 25 yards. During individual matches I see some guys load one chamber of a cylinder and fire the whole 10 shot for score relay from that same chamber. Your revolver sounds like all the chambers line up with the barrel.
Bruce

 

[F.G. Ford]

I am sure, at one time or another, we all tried petroleum based lubes, grease, oil, whatever.
When your shooter seizes up, and you continue to shoot, you tear the guts out of the revolver.
Putting undue stress on the hand that positions the cylinder.
Changing to a beeswax mix, or "GOOD" commercial lube, makes a great difference.
It is really surprising how hard petroleum products harden up, when exposed to the heat of shooting.
Makes you wonder, how they can possibly work in an automobile.
Old Ford

 

[mykeal]

Oh yes, it's just me but I would ditch your lube as it is all petroleum based. I have found that petro-based lubes foul terribly with BP. Any mix of lard (tallow, crisco), beeswax, and olive oil (added to taste for softening) have worked well for me and others.

Richard's lube mix has petroleum derivatives in it, but none of them contain the long hydrocarbon chains that react with black powder combustion byproducts. He should not have those problems with that mix. Of the three ingredients the only one that would bother me is the paraffin wax - some of those contain synthetic molecules that will break down, but if he's found one that doesn't it should work ok.

It is really surprising how hard petroleum products harden up, when exposed to the heat of shooting.
Makes you wonder, how they can possibly work in an automobile.

It's not the heat that causes it to harden up; it's a chemical reaction to the compounds in the powder combustion byproducts.

 

[FishDFly]

I bought 5 pounds of beeswax to make a new mixture based on reading here. I am going to try using it next when I run out of my current batch.

When I bought the gun, I could not get the cylinder back into the gun, neither could 3 gunsmiths. I called the Uberti gunsmith and told him my problem. He said he knew exactly what the problem was and he also said that the pall spring was too stiff and he would fix that. He asked what I was going to use the pistol for, I told him paper match competition. His response was, I will take care of you.

When seating the balls, each shaved lead ring is identical to the other, .454 balls.

I bought a loading stand that mykeal recommended,
and I really like it. I use it instead of loading the cylinder in the pistol.

I shoot 5 shots and then load from the stand. Each chamber gets cleaned with a patch, the barrel gets 2 passes with a bore brush and then 2 patches (both sides) are run through the barrel. The entire gun gets a quick wipe down with a rag.

There are a couple schools of thought on BP revolver shooting. As pointed out, some will only shoot one chamber, some will shoot five chambers and some number them and only shoot specific chambers. I don't know, I watch on the line while taking a break and see all 3 used.

My preference is to load 5. I prefer to shoot when things are right and not rush. By loading and shooting 5, I spend less time on my feet and at the end of the day I am not as tired, less walking than if I only used on chamber.

My scores are coming up, again thanks to a lot of help from those here. I have done several things to improve my scores outside of the help here. I read a lot about pistol shooting. I dry fire 3 different pistols each morning for 10 minutes each. I only shoot against myself and do not look at other peoples targets when I pull mine.

Thanks for all the help.

RDE

 

[Raider2000]

That's some good shooting & congrats on what seems like a real shooter.

In my N-SSA days I too have seen the 1 chamber & the numbered chamber types & will admit, they knew their pistols well & scored really well but me I'm more of a fun person than a score keeper, granted I like it when my scores look great but as long as I'm having a ball at slinging lead I'm happy either way.

Good luck to ya but allways remember, have fun...

 

[FishDFly]

I have a friend whose motto is, I do not spend my money and be miserable. I have fun when I shoot. When I go to matches I shoot against myself.

Did you ever go to a cemetary and see a head stone that said, I wish I had spent more time at work?

Shoot more and the one with the most toys, is the winner.

RDE